


be mine

by ten_and_a_rose



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Episode Fix-It: s04e13 Journey's End, F/M, Pete's World, Post-Episode: s02e13 Doomsday, Reunion, Romance, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-20 06:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5994664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ten_and_a_rose/pseuds/ten_and_a_rose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pretty much what it says on the tin (in the tags, heh)...</p><p>Written for <a href="timepetalsprompts.tumblr.com">timepetalsprompts</a> prompt "candy hearts / broken hearts."</p>
            </blockquote>





	be mine

It was a month after Bad Wolf Bay that Pete finally said it.

“Rose, I think you should see someone.”

He’d taken a seat on the sofa next to her, next to the corner she’d curled into under a heavy duvet and made her permanent residence once they’d come back from Norway.

It took a full second for his presence to register over the droning sound of the telly, another for his voice to penetrate the thick cold fog that had settled like a shroud inside her.  It took a third for her to muster the strength to turn her head and attempt to form words.  Dimly it occurred to her that she didn’t know what he meant.

“See who?” she mumbled vacantly.  Since the Doctor’s image had faded away on that frigid, windswept beach, all she could really _see_ was his face, the pain in his eyes and the half-uttered sentence suspended in time on his lips.

Pete hesitated, and her gaze drifted aimlessly back to the telly.

“Someone – someone you can talk to,” he replied after a long, uncomfortable-sounding pause.

Oh.  _See_ someone.  Aha.

Sluggishly, it occurred to her that it was her turn to speak again, that she should really have an opinion on the matter, should be feeling something, anything about Pete’s concerned suggestion.  But she couldn’t and she didn’t.  She was so cold, too cold even to shiver, encased in a thick apathetic rind of ice.  She didn’t have the energy to say anything at all, so she just kept staring at the meaninglessness of the glowing screen in front of her.

After a long moment, she heard him sigh and his weight lifted off the cushions.  She was glad for the empty space.  It felt wrong, like a flat note in an aria, to have anyone beside her except the one man who would never be there again.

It felt wrong to _feel_ at all.

Two days later, it was an advert – of all the stupid stupid things, an _advert_ – that yanked the pin from the grenade she didn’t even know was nestled in the space where her heart had been.

As she stared at the screen in a strange open-mouthed shock, a surreally cheerful florist stepped from behind a counter spilling over with rose bouquets – and wasn’t that _fucking_ ironic – to remind shoppers that they should place their orders early to ensure on-time delivery.  For Valentine’s Day.  Apparently celebrated here in November.

The picture transitioned into a dreamy image of a single, long-stemmed rose, crimson red and surrounded by those familiar and idiotically inedible candy hearts that seemed the same in every universe – those hearts carrying tiny messages of love and devotion.

One word was printed on the most prominent one, staring back at her from right next to the biggest of the flower’s petals.  One word on a single piece of candy.

_Forever._

A single piece of candy and the world exploded.

She moved so swiftly she didn’t actually recall doing it, throwing off the duvet and propelling herself forward onto the edge of the sofa.  Out of her control, her clenched fist swung down with all the force she had in her and impacted the glass coffee table.  It shattered under the tremendous blow, and it felt like _life_ when it gave way beneath her.  Exhilarated, she reveled in the pain that came next, pain that started in her fingertips and zinged down her arm, chasing rivulets of her own blood.  It _hurt_ , and she _felt_ it, and it felt _so good_.

She stood with a serene smile and cradled her injured arm close to her chest as she peacefully made her way toward the alarmed cries of Pete, Jackie, and several of the staff who had heard the loud crash.  Pete showed up first, breathless and horrified and shouted, “Rose, my God, _what happened?!?”_

“I think you’re right, Pete,” she said with an eerie calm.  “I should see someone.”

~o~

Two years later she strode confidently down the middle of a deserted, war-torn suburban street and stopped short when she crested a small hill to see the dim outlines of two people and a blue police box in the distance.  She dared to hope, and her face lit up like daybreak when one of them turned and began to run toward her.  The stars were going out and the universe was ending and all she knew in that instant was that she’d found him, it was _him_.

She shucked off the slightly ridiculous gun she’d been carrying and broke into a dead run that matched his, and when they crashed into each other he used their own momentum to pull her up off her feet and swing her around in a circle, over and over until they were both dizzy.  That voice she thought she’d never hear again was repeating her name like a mantra and it fizzed through her veins exactly like coming to life anew, like the ineffable feeling of breaking glass and shattering ice.

It lasted only seconds but was also so much longer.  Jack materialised nearby carrying a gun much like the one she’d discarded, reminding them they were not safe in the open, and the woman she recognized as Donna beckoned them back toward the Tardis.  Reluctantly the Doctor let go of her, but immediately he took her hand and laced their fingers together, and she knew that no matter what happened next, she had found her way _home._

And after – after the battle was over, after Davros was vanquished, after they towed the Earth home in that glowing brief hour of belonging and togetherness that she sensed made the Doctor’s hearts brim to overflowing – after bittersweet goodbyes and leaving Bad Wolf Bay behind for the last time...

After all of that, they stood together in the console room, alone with each other for the first time, and there was the chance to breathe, finally to take life back into her lungs.

She grinned, almost shyly, and said, “Hello.”

He looked at her like the sun had come out after years of rain.  “Hello, Rose.”

She pushed her hand, the one covered in a spider web of thin silvery scars, inside the pocket of her jacket.  He regarded her curiously as she pulled it back out and haltingly opened her fist.

Resting on her palm were three identical pink candy hearts, each bearing the same one word.

He laughed as he took them, a pure and joyful sound that bathed her in warmth until she knew she had to be glowing from the inside out.  Then he placed them carefully in his own pocket.

Deep down she’d been a bit afraid of this moment, unsure if he’d still want her with him, if he still –

The thought died instantly as his hands moved up to cradle her face.  She felt like she might burst into flames when he murmured, “How long will you stay with me?”

She whispered it, the one word she'd refused to utter since she'd lost him. "Forever."

He kissed her.

 

 


End file.
